by Terry Spear
“Like me, Uncle Aidan. Mommy says you are a hero.”
Aidan laughed. “You be good for Santa. Give your mommy a hug, and I’ll see you as soon as I can. Protect your mommy until Rafe gets home.”
“Okay. Here, Mommy. Uncle Aidan said I gotta give you a hug.”
“Hey, Aidan, you be careful. Rafe said you’re playing with fire around that Seattle pack.”
“I’ll be careful. Love you and Toby. I’ll see you soon.”
When they ended the call, Aidan winced as he felt another ripple of pain across his skull.
He had told Ted and Mike not to let on that he was hoping to still connect with the Seattle pack. He regretted telling his brother at the hospital last night. The Glacier Peak Wilderness wasn’t the Seattle pack’s territory as they’d claimed. The city was nearly seventy miles southwest of the peak. Still, running into the pack up here might cause trouble. Aidan couldn’t understand why they were so reluctant to have their blood tested. Their reluctance made him more than curious.
“Are you both going home for Christmas?” Aidan had hoped the men would. Ted and Mike needed to be with their families.
“Yeah, Doc. Since you’re spending Christmas with Rafe and he’s got his own guards, there’s no need for me to watch your back. You know if you need me, I’ll stick around,” Ted said. “But Rafe felt they’d have it covered.”
“Same with me. Going home to the folks,” Mike said. “Toby will have fun seeing snow, won’t he?”
“Yeah, first time to take Toby skiing. And he’ll love running through the snow.”
“He’ll love making snowmen too.” Ted carried another load of groceries into the kitchen.
They finished unloading the groceries and the bags, though Ted and Mike kept telling Aidan they had this, afraid he’d tire out and wouldn’t be able to run later. He’d carried his bags to his room, then returned to the kitchen to make coffee for everyone while they put away the groceries.
“Where are we running exactly? You want both of us to come, right? You don’t want Mike to stay home and guard the place, do you?” Ted asked.
“Mike? What do you mean I should stay home and guard the cabin? What about you guarding the cabin?” Mike asked.
Aidan smiled at the two men. They had become the best of friends, and he felt lucky to have them for his protection. He pulled out his laptop and showed them the map of the Wilderness area. He ran his finger along the path he thought they could take. “We could start up the south side on the trail to White Pass.”
Ted looked worried all over again. Normally, a wolf would take the more difficult trails to avoid running into humans. But Aidan figured it was a good idea to take it easy, just a bit. That way, he’d be able to travel farther. If they smelled any sign of Nick, they might be able to locate him early.
“From what Everett told you, that trail runs close to the Seattle pack’s cabins,” Mike mentioned. “You sure you want to run in that direction?”
“It’s his head I’m worried about,” Ted said.
“It’s the rest of him I’m worried about,” Mike said.
Aidan chuckled. “All right. You’re probably correct, and we should avoid getting too close to those cabins.” Though he had hoped to catch a glimpse of Holly and talk to her again. But as a wolf, that would be difficult. “We can take the more northern route. If my head bothers me, we’ll return to the cabin sooner.” Though he had no intention of doing so. Once he was on a mission, that was all that mattered. He’d deal with a headache later.
“Most humans travel through here in the summer, if they venture this far into the Wilderness at all, since it’s remote. The chance of us seeing anyone is unlikely. At least that’s what it says here.” Mike showed them a hiker’s trip report.
“Right.” Aidan noticed he had missed a call from last night, probably from when he was sleeping deeply from the pain medication. The name looked familiar: Ronald Grayson, the leader of the Seattle wolf pack. Which made Aidan suspect Jared had told him what had happened at the mall. Aidan was certain Ronald hadn’t changed his mind about allowing him to draw blood from their pack members for his research, despite saving one of their boys.
Aidan called the pack leader back while Ted poured a cup of hot coffee filled with cream for him. One nice thing about his bodyguards was that they loved to cook. Before they’d shown up, Aidan was always skipping meals when he was in the middle of his research, too focused on what he was doing. Now that they were around and didn’t have other duties, Ted and Mike wouldn’t let him miss a meal. Of course, they wanted to eat too.
“Thanks, Ted.” Aidan took the cup of coffee from him and moved into the living room. “Hi, this is Dr. Aidan Denali,” he said to Ronald. “You called?”
“Some of my pack members said you were running in our territory.”
“Seattle? Nope. Haven’t been there since the first time I spoke with you there.”
Ronald growled a little over the phone. “We claim the area surrounding Seattle as our own. The mall in Lynnwood too.”
“We’re not there now, and we’re not setting up business in your territory. As to the mall, well, hell, who knows what might have happened to Joey if I hadn’t stopped the woman from taking him out of the store.”
Ted and Mike had left the kitchen and were watching Aidan as if they thought a fight could break out right there and their services would be needed. They both gave him smiles and thumbs-up. They were ready for some action.
“Just because you and your brother have a lot of money doesn’t mean you can go anywhere you please and do whatever you please. You leave my people alone and stay the hell away.”
“You’re welcome for saving your kid,” Aidan said. The guy really needed an attitude adjustment. Or to be replaced.
The phone clicked dead in Aidan’s ear.
He pocketed his phone and took a sip of his coffee. “That was Ronald, leader of the Seattle pack, and he told us to stay away from his pack members. I suspect Jared told on us.”
“I doubt either Holly or her sister did,” Ted said.
“I swear Holly would have talked to me further, if it hadn’t been for Jared butting in.” Aidan finished the rest of his coffee.
“After the way she hugged you, I’d say so.” Ted headed back into the kitchen.
“Yeah, he’s got that hero thing going with saving little kids.”
Ted started looking in the cupboards. “I think even if you or I saved the boy, she’d still have been interested solely in the doc. Did you see the way she looked at him when she learned who he was?”
Mike joined him in the kitchen. “Awestruck.”
“In love.”
“Intrigued,” Mike added.
Aidan laughed. His bodyguards could sure be entertaining sometimes. They were just having fun at his expense because they’d never seen him around a she-wolf that he was as interested in.
“Ready to make a meal?” Ted asked.
“Yeah, what sounds good?” Mike replied.
Aidan was looking out the window at the mountain, the accumulated snow on the ground, and the mist of snow in the air. He wanted to locate Holly in the worst way—to learn if she had wanted to meet with him. He wanted to let her know they were searching for Nick, since she had also been trying to locate him. Wouldn’t that give Aidan even more leverage with her?
“One pretty little she-wolf,” Ted said, and Aidan looked back to see both men chuckle as they watched him. “Did you notice she didn’t give him a brief thank-you hug that would have been just a…thank-you?”
“Hell, no, that was a lot more than an impersonal embrace,” Ted said. “Something I could have gotten into.”
“She was trying to show Jared she wasn’t going to be told what to do, while annoying him at the same time,” Aidan said.
Both men glanced at him and smiled.
&
nbsp; “Whatever you say, Doc.” Ted pulled a package of hamburger out of the fridge and held it up. “Hamburgers?”
“Sounds good,” Aidan said.
“What are you working on now, Doc?” Ted began setting out all the ingredients: hamburger, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms, pickles, buns, and condiments.
That was one thing Aidan hadn’t counted on either, that his bodyguards would be interested in his research.
Mike had been an army medic and was interested in the biological aspects of what was going on with their bodies. Ted loved to organize things. Even with cooking, he’d get all the ingredients out, set them all up in order, and work more efficiently than Aidan ever could. Ted had been fascinated with setting up charts to see if any correlation existed between different types of data Aidan had collected.
Both men had wanted to help since they weren’t doing much bodyguarding. Aidan was glad to have them on the team.
“You know all he’s thinking about is convincing the pretty wolf doctor to go out with him and share her blood.” Ted began slicing up the onions and mushrooms.
Mike laughed. “Sounds like Doc’s a vampire instead of a wolf. Mushrooms and onions on your hamburger, hold the cheese, right, Doc?”
One mouthwatering, blond she-wolf on the menu was all Aidan could think of. “Yeah, thanks.” His cell rang, and when he saw the caller ID, he smiled. Dr. Holly Gray. He suspected she was going to thank him again for saving Joey. He’d really go for another one of her body-squeezing, hot-blooded hugs. “This is Aidan.”
Both of his bodyguards stopped what they were doing and glanced in his direction. He must not have sounded like his usual professional self.
“Hey, um, it’s Holly. Uh, from yesterday. At the mall.”
As if Aidan would forget. “Yeah, I’m glad you called. I didn’t get your number. Did Jared give you any further grief yesterday? I half expected him to take my business card away from you. I was ready to deal with him.”
“I assumed you were ready to tear into him, even though you’d been injured. No worries. I’d already memorized your number.”
“So he did take the card from you.”
“From Trudy, Joey’s mother, after she called to thank you for saving her son. But I called to see how you are. I tried last night, but I was having reception issues.”
“I received two stitches, but the cut is healing fast, and I’m good to go.” Aidan wasn’t about to heed Rafe’s warning to stay away from Holly. “I’m running in a bit. Did you want to meet up with me?”
Ted and Mike chuckled.
“You must have a death wish. Yes, I’d love to run with you, but I wouldn’t dare. Are…the two men who were with you your bodyguards?”
“They are. And my personal assistants. Great cooks too.”
Mike gave him a thumbs-up.
“They won’t be enough muscle to protect you,” she warned. “Stay to the north side of the peak. We generally run on the south side. It’s less dangerous for our families.”
“What do you know about Nick Cornwall? I want to locate him and test his blood in case there’s anything different about it. I’ve come to a dead end with finding new wolf packs or loners. When I learned of him through Everett Johnston, he said he was concerned about Nick’s health.”
“Oh, Nick. He was with our pack forever. One of our first leaders. I swear Ronald didn’t want to have him around because he felt he couldn’t live up to Nick’s leadership skills. Nick was a good leader, charismatic. None of this business with being antisocial with other packs. When his wife died, he withdrew more and more from the pack. He would leave for weeks at a time. I thought it was because everyone was a constant reminder of the mate he’d lost. Ronald banished him because he said Nick was causing trouble for us. He wasn’t. He was depressed and more like a lost soul. He couldn’t help how he felt, and a lot of us were furious that Ronald made him leave.
“Some of us searched for him, but Nick is extremely wily, and unless he wants to be seen, you won’t ever find him. He moves his camp all the time to avoid park people running across him while he’s living in the wilderness. Over two hundred lakes are in the area, many of them not even named and extremely treacherous to reach, but I’ve heard he hangs out around some of them while he fishes. Even though he can shift into a wolf, he would still have to hide all his belongings so no one could find his stuff while he’s out hunting or running as a wolf.”
“Was he a loner before he became the leader of the pack?” Aidan asked.
“No, he and his mate formed the pack. He was the life of the party. After he stepped down from the role of leader, he served as our Santa for years while his wife was alive. He was friends with everyone. I think that’s why it was hard for him to be banished just because he was having such a difficult time coping. And everyone respected him, while a lot of us don’t respect Ronald.” She let out her breath. “You wanted to see Nick for his blood work?”
“Yeah, but only if he’s interested in providing it. At this point, I just want to offer to put him in contact with other packs I know. He can live out his years surrounded by others of our kind. In terms of the longevity issue, he might not care about living a longer life anyway after having lost his mate.”
“People are funny like that. You might think he’d want to join his mate in death, yet living out there, despite the harsh living conditions, he still isn’t giving up.” She paused. “You really want to find him a new home?”
“Yes. If he wants, we’ll fly him to where other known packs are and see if he can find one he’d like to stay with. As pack animals, he shouldn’t have to live on his own, if that’s not the way he likes to live. Silver Town might be a good place. They have a psychologist. And the Montana pack has an inordinate number of widowed female wolves.”
“He might not be looking for another mate,” Holly warned him.
“No, but he might enjoy all the pampering the women would give him.”
Mike chuckled. “He wouldn’t know what hit him when the women began fighting over him.”
“You just never know,” Aidan continued. “But an older wolf shouldn’t have to be living in the wilderness on the periphery of a pack.”
“Okay, then I want to help you locate him. I’ve tried before. I can’t say that I would be any more successful than you, but if we locate him, he’ll recognize me and know I don’t wish him any harm. Wild gray wolves, grizzlies, and wolverines live in the area. He needs to know you’re not some of the wilder population hunting out there,” Holly said.
Aidan couldn’t have been more pleased. “How will you get away from your pack so they don’t know where you’re going and send out a search party?” He suspected that since Ronald had banished Nick, he wouldn’t want any of his pack members looking for the older wolf and bringing him back. And Ronald certainly wouldn’t want her to be in the company of wolves outside their pack while she looked for Nick.
“I’ll let my family know I’m going to look for Nick to see if he’s all right. I’ve come out here on my own half a dozen times since he was banished three months ago. He lost his mate nine months ago.”
“You don’t think Jared will be keeping more of an eye on you now that I’m in the area?”
She laughed. “Yeah, maybe. That’s why you need to stay to the north. We don’t go there. We’ve spied grizzlies up there, and we have too many families with us. We’re more careful with them.”
“Grizzlies.”
“Yeah, but I’m still going with you. Do you know the area at all?”
“I do, but I’ve never gone in search of a lupus garou. We’ll try to cover as much terrain as we can, and not on the regular human trails.”
“I agree. I’ll meet you at Spider Gap.”
There was no maintained trail, and even in summer, the Wilderness was snow-covered. At this time of year, ten to twenty feet of s
now covered the whole area. The descent on the north side was a challenge for backpackers, but hopefully the wolves could make it where humans had more difficulty.
“Okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, we’ll meet you there. Do you want to do it in an hour to get a head start? We’re getting ready to eat hamburgers.” He’d decided he wasn’t waiting until tonight. It could be more dangerous because of avalanches or crevasses.
“You’re sure your head can take the steeper trails?”
“If I can’t, you can doctor me.”
She chuckled. “Okay, see you in about an hour and a half after I grab a bite to eat.”
Yes! Aidan couldn’t wait to see her again. He ended the call, and Mike shook his head.
Ted turned the hamburger patties on the grill. “That was Holly? And she’s going to help us track down Nick?”
“Yeah.”
“I told you the brothers make all the right moves and know just what to say to win a girl over,” Ted said. “All he had to tell her was that he was going to help poor Nick, and Doc had hooked her.”
Mike laughed. “Here we thought he wasn’t a real go-getter when it came to she-wolves.”
“There haven’t been too many around our area—although now Jade has half a dozen women sewing her children’s and women’s lingerie designs to stock in stores—but Doc’s been too busy with his research anyway,” Ted said. “Until now.”
“I always thought he would scare them off when he brought out his hypodermic needles to draw blood,” Mike said.
“Very funny.” Aidan hadn’t found any of the women appealing—no common interests, no spark. Not like he’d felt with Holly.
“Well, don’t ask Holly for her blood right away, ’kay, Doc?” Ted said. “I think the doctor likes you, but you could blow it big time if you start asking her to give some of her blood for your research.”
Aidan wanted to get to know the intriguing wolf for a lot more than that. “Don’t tell Rafe we’re running with her in the Wilderness. He’s liable to return and give us all grief.”